Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Color & the Keeping of it

I suppose there is no sense in resisting the urge to get organized and venture into 2013 with a clean slate. I'll be filming with CreativeBug again next week, so the tidying spasm I suffer is good timing. Up here in the white studio, much cleaning and organizing has been happening which is really only enjoyable once the actual mess is cleaned up and it's time to organize. I love that part. Getting sorted.
Downstairs Pierrette is cleaning up the shop studio as well. We'll be filming down there no doubt too since the nice huge cutting counter is there and it's also slightly easier to move camera equipment and lighting around unlike the attic up here which quickly feels like a dollhouse the moment you try to do anything but write, draw or sew. And despite today's blue-gray light we've also been working on shooting pics of the new perle cotton palettes and the new embroidery floss palettes which will be listed in the store hopefully by the end of the day.
I LOVE these new colors. The perles up there are called Sun Study. I have already been handquilting with these and relish in the light that they catch. So pretty. And the two new embroidery floss palettes are so rich and bright. Keeping it all organized can be a challenge. I know I may have a bit more thread than your average bear, but since you might be feeling all organizey too, seeing as how it's January, I thought I would share what I came up with last fall for storage.
I bought some 120 yr old lengths of interior mouldings at a salvage place for just a few dollars a foot with no real plan. But loving the warmth the stained wood added to the bare studio, I decided to put them to use to store floss. My dear sweet, son (who was paid, of course) Nicolas marked out every inch with a sharpie dot along the bottom edge of one, then drill small pilot holes, then screwed in hooks for a total of about 100 hooks.
His hands were quite numb afterward, but oh golly do I love this thing, and paying him helped me to feel less guilty when he complained. Anyway, I simply screwed it into the slanted wall onto the wooden ribs at a height that would have the floss hovering just above another piece of ledge moulding. Making all the holes into a moulding saves you from putting a zillion holes into the wall. The hooks are pretty deep so that I can get about 4 or 5 skeins of floss on one. I adore having the color right there in my face instead of tucked away.
With the exception of a few balls of perle cotton that I tuck onto the ledge behind the floss, I mostly keep those in big clear jars. I ordered mine from Specialty Bottle, and though you have to order in multiples, I have no trouble finding uses for these all over the house. And these are particularly nice because the mouth is wide and easier to get your hand in there and dig around for the color that you want that is of course on the very bottom.

We have an ultrasound on Friday and I could bust from the excitement of having a look at this little him or her. I could also bust from the butter cookies that I could probably also see on ultrsound, which reminds me to go for a walk. Running is getting silly.

I am speechless with color-organization envy!It's all too-too fabulous. What a clever solution, and it's gorgeous.Congratulations, Anna Maria... another blessed baby in your home... I am very happy for you.

Congratulations on the new baby. I also had my 7th in my 40th year and like yours, mine was the tie-breaker (we also had 3 boys and 3 girls at the time). My baby girl is now a 6th grader! We miss babies but the next ones in this house will be grandbabies or have paws. :) (My 12yo is fine with either of those options!)

I love that organizational tid bit. It's very pretty and so convenient!You rock when it comes to these things. You should know how too, you have so many things going on, I would think organizing is at the very top of your (many) talents!

Of course, after reading your post I went to the Specialty Bottle web site. And spent a wee bit of time looking at everything. Now, if anyone asks me where they can get a clear French square, I'll know where to send them :)

Do you have a feeling about a him or a her? Are you ever good at guessing which flavor you'll have? Fingers crossed for Friday!

I love the thread storage moulding you've created! Practical and pretty. Good work Nicholas! How old is your helpful son? Good luck for your ultrasound.have you found out the sex with your other children?

Wonderful, AM! So lovely. A question for you, as I get back into embroidering in a post-friendship era (which was many moons ago...) -- do you wind the floss onto something, or pull it straight from the skeins as needed? Thank you!

I like to pull it straight from the skeins. I might wind it onto a card if I am grouping some colors together to work on a project for a while, which is easier to keep tidy as you work than a pile of skeins next to you. However I REALLY dislike those tiny little cards that leave a kink in your floss about every 1.5", it bugs me. So I use a large homemade card that is the same size as the skein. I also designed my floss packages to come with a large winding card for this exact purpose. You can see that by clicking on the detail shot on this page here:http://store.annamariahorner.com/raemfl.html

This is really a nice way to store your floss. I just posted about a spice rack that I converted into wool storage. I love being able to see my floss and wool out, instead of in drawers. I noticed in my photos a box of my Anna Marie floss! I hope you don't mind it was in the pictures! http://sewandsowfarm.blogspot.com/ If so, let me know and I will change the photos. Have a great day!!